Dowagiac plans medical arts building

Facility will be located at Central Middle School site.

Facility will be located at Central Middle School site.

March 13, 2006|JEFF ROMIG Tribune Staff Writer

DOWAGIAC -- Luring doctors to Dowagiac has been a difficult task for some time. Officials recall their responses sounding something like this. "I like your town, but where am I going to practice?" Now, those officials have an answer. An answer which will require the razing of a Dowagiac landmark. By summer 2007, a two-story, 20,000-square-foot medical arts building will sit where Central Middle School has sat for more than 100 years. "For our community to maintain its viability, we need to have state-of-the-art health care," Mayor Donald Lyons told a group gathered last week at city hall for a news conference about the project. During tonight's 7 p.m. meeting, the Dowagiac City Council will officially purchase the old middle school from the Dowagiac Union Schools for $1. The city has been working since 2003 with Borgess-Lee Memorial Hospital and the Cass-Van Buren Health Department to create a Dowagiac-based medical arts building. The vacant middle school's location across the street from Dowagiac's Borgess-Lee campus made it an ideal spot for the project. An it turns out, it helped create the ideal partnership between the four entities. "Without a cooperative working relationship this could not have occurred," said Larry Crandall, superintendent of Dowagiac Union Schools. City Manager Bill Nelson said the medical arts building will incorporate architecture from the middle school as a tribute. "Central has been an important building in this community for a long time," Nelson said. In addition to the presence of the medical arts building, the property also will boast a 30-unit senior independent living apartment complex. Right now, Nelson estimates to total project cost at about $5 million, but he said that number could increase. The city also will spend $250,000 for demolition and site cleanup. Nelson said this part of the project will be funded by using the state's brownfield redevelopment program, which can be used to address functionally obsolete buildings. The rest of the project will be paid for by issuing bonds that will be paid off by the lease payments of the occupants, Lee-Borgess-Lee Memorial Hospital and the Cass-Van Buren Health Department, both of whom have agreed to long-term leases. The medical clinic will be owned and occupied by a tax exempt entity. Once the mortgage is paid off in 20 years, ownership of the building will revert to the city of Dowagiac. The building is being built with enough room to accommodate three more doctors than originally scheduled and a second phase is planned once the initial space fills up. The first floor of the building will belong to Borgess-Lee, who will move all of its Dowagiac physician practices into the building, with the exception of their pediatrics clinic, which will remain on Whitney Avenue. The building's second floor will house the Cass-Van Buren Health Department, which will relocate from its current location. Nelson said demolition of the old building and construction of the new building are projected for this spring. He said the medical arts building should be ready for occupancy by the summer of 2007. Nelson said construction on the senior apartments won't be far behind. "If not parallel, directly on the heels of this development," he said. Staff writer Jeff Romig: jromig@sbtinfo.com (269) 687-7001